Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Jurowski

Two works from the final phase of their composers’ lives which, within the framework of the Biennale Signs & Wonders, explore questions of faith, doubt and what lies beyond the end.Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Stille und Umkehr was written in 1970, four months before he took his own life. This short orchestral work is spare in texture and, alongside the usual complement of strings and wind instruments, calls for hammered dulcimer, accordion and musical saw. At its centre is a single pitch: the note D. It is from this same note that Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony begins. The symphony’s finale remained unfinished; the Adagio, lasting around half an hour, is the last complete movement Bruckner left behind.

Programme

Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Silence and Revearsal

Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 9 in D minor